NAGAO "Hanga-tezuri" FACTORY/CREATOR

I am 80years old now. It's been,,, about,,,,, 100th year here already. It's been continuing for 3rd generation, which I am. Our ancestor was Hatamoto (Direct retainer of the shogun), so that's why we've been in Edo for so long. When family was still Hatamoto, our house was over in Azabu, I heard. 400 years living in Edo. Before that, family lived in Okazaki. Which means my family was not follower of Ieyasu Tokugawa(Shogun of Edo). So my family's ancestors were Nobunaga Oda's follower. I looked it up in Okazaki. You know what? There I found this temple called Mantoku-ji. In that temple is our family's graves. It says Nagao something's grave on it, and it was right on top of Muenbotoke(Person who died leaving no one to tend his grave). This does not make you feel well right? So you should not look for your old ancestor's graves. You might end up finding one like me you know? Once Hatamoto family comes to Edo, you will not be able to get out of Edo. In Meiji-Era's abolition of feudal domains and establishment of prefectures, my grandfather received 180yen and became commoner from Shizoku(Samurai). So in our census registration, not any more but they used to print Shizoku on top . Only Shizoku and new commoner（new commoners are the people who were in lower social position and were under discrimination. They were placed out of lower position and were treated as regular commoners without discrimination.） had there social position printed. We don't see that anymore though. So when we were levied for military service, if it was the army, we all become Konoe soldier(soldiers which defended emperor) It was Marine that we were levied for, so we all were normal soldiers or sailors. But all of my father's brothers became Konoe soldiers and they all died in Russo-Japanese War. (Why the former Hatamoto got into this business?) At that time, when my grandfather received 180yen, 180yen at that time worth about one hundred million yen of now. Samurai families failed on what's called Samurai Business. Same in my grandfather's house, and he failed on everything he did. After that, he became policemen, but he could not catch any criminals. So he didn't fit into policemen well, then after all, ended up in this business. Reason why is, you know there is Buddhist altar fittings shop right in front of Honganji(Hongan Temple). When that shop received an order such as mortuary tablet, shop asked my grandfather to write the name in gold letters, and that's how my grandfather made a living. After that, started this business, but my grandfather died right after starting this business, and my father succeeded. Our pictures are series of Jyuuzaburou Tstutaya, who was woodprint craftsman as well and carved pictures by Sharaku.

Especially, there hardly is any other person in the same line of business. We are the only one who do all the processes, carving and printing. There is no more board too. There used to be a board shop 2houses next door, but on last new year, owner died in a age 61. So we no longer have a way to acquire a board that is not pasted. Now, unwillingly, we put together cherry blossom tree like plywood and use that board instead. But my son would not use that board. He doesn't like, he said. Cherry blossom tree is hard, but not too hard. Board that is too hard, we can't carve nor print using it. After all, Cherry blossom tree that are from north of Edo are not good. Too hard. Ones from south are better. From here, cherry blossom trees in Amami are good, we said. But we don't have time for that. No cherry blossom trees there. There is, but they won't let us cut down the trees. Ministry of Education now let some of them cut down to save the traditional handicrafts, but sill that is not enough. As the time goes on, we have less and less things and materials we can use. From old days, for example pornographic pictures, we can't make them any longer. The reason why is that thin and sensitive hairlines of pornographic pictures cannot be carved using cherry blossom board. So only for that part, we fill in with the boxwood. Now, we can't no longer do that filling too. (Holding up the board) This part right here, this hair, 3lines within a space of 1mm. You must be able to carve like this to become living national treasure. Person who was living national treasure and who carved this died about 20-30years ago. His son, who was about my age died recently. So my son is the youngest.

People often call us Surishi(Printer), but in old days, there were no printer. When people called us Suri-shi instead of calling us Ukiyoe craftsman, we scattered salt on them(acts as amulet). Yes, Edokko(People in Edo)hated something that decreases. (This is a joke. Printer in Japanese is Suri-shi. Suri sounds similar to Suriheru which means wear away.) So we were the seal shop. Carving shop was board shop. If we look up the roots, seal shop is in higher rank than the carving shop. The reason why is that there were no technique of printing some other color than black. Ukiyoe was invented by Moronobu Hishikawa in the middle of Genroku-era. Ukiyoe is the pictures of social conditions. At that time,only the Chinese ink's black was used. When they needed coloring, they did it with hand. The pictures in that era is called Ukiyoe. In 2nd year of Meiwa-era, coloring technique was invented by Harunobu. The picture with colors printed, that is Nishikie. Nishikie, Ukiyoe, different, you know? Now, no one understands the difference. The paper is different too. Paper for Nishikie is from Echizen. Paper used in old days were of Ibaragi's. So we can not restore the pictures from Genroku-Era. No more papers from Ibaragi. They still make papers there. It's living national treasure who's making it, you know? Even he can't make a paper of old days. Why? Because in old days, papers were really thin. Workers in old days had that skill. Now, it's better to make paper thick than to do it like old days. They now sell papers in weight, not numbers. They measure 500papers and sell them. It's better to double weight or make paper in double thickness because you can sell it with double price. That's why they no longer make really thin papers. The thick papers, when we rub the sensitive lines with Baren(tool to rub the paper on printing board), it eventually will dig into it and stuff it up. It will make it difficult for us. But what can I say. When we use the thin paper made by low skills of today after that, we canユt do our work properly. So everything is bad from old days. But one thing better is skill of workers. Printings of the old days were not this clean.

No rich people would buy our pictures. 16mon(old Japanese currency) each you know. Rich people don't buy such thing. You know how much do 16mon worth? Now, Soba costs about 350yen each right? That's how much 16mon worth at that time. That's why rich people don't buy 'em. You see, the population of Japan now is about 120million right. Woodprint is expensive now because of 1.2million population and only one or two hundred copies could be manufactured. At that time, population was only 35million and there were tons of copies around. Rich people don't care about the pictures that are abundant. So people are misunderstanding, they did not sell this kind of pictures in a frame. 16mon picture in a frame that worth at least 100mon? No way. Cheap picture like that, even though it is carved on to the detailed

parts, could print only about 5 from one board. If the board is used more than that, picture printed could not be sold with 16mon. Price of the board is expensive than the price of carving. So they should not be a toy of rich people. Pictures are about 10,000yen each, but young people who are working would not buy them with such price. That's not good. Printers in old days are really rough, they do the printing of 16mon per picture. But to sell it with 16mon, they used 3colors in one board, used both front and back, many ideas like this. (Used what commoner liked for design?) They didn't make it unless people buy them. People at that time did not like Sharaku's pictures. So there isn't so many of them left, and that's why Sharaku's expensive ones are as high as 90million yen. Shops that sell these pictures sometimes complain to me

because I sell woodprints too cheap, and the price of woodprints would not rise. Selling 'em too expensive , and when ordinary people could not buy them, that is not good. (Mr. Nagao's pictures are inexpensive?) Yes, it's cheap. Usually in a department stores, these are sold with 18,000yen each right? I sell them with about 10,000yen. That's why they are troubled and complaining. But you know, why complain? Many traders involving will make price of the pictures high. That does not mean anything.

Because we don't have any other business we can do. What the business is, for example me, I didn't succeed because my father told me to. In our elementary school days, parents often made us sit down. And then, well parents are much better educators in old days. My father won't say anything nor teach me anything. I sit right here, father sit right there, he just slapped me. And then, he compared my work with his, and say 'why would you not understand the difference?'. How would I know, right? It sure is so foolish. So I go outside to play. My father, well he thinks of it as nothing. He's all when playing, let him play. Father let me play around even when I got older. When I got older, Yoshihara is close by. Craftsman, when they receive a pay, they all go to Yoshiwara(town that had many bars and prostitution quarters) to play around. They play and that makes there pay less. You have got to work then, and they start working. So my father never taught me anything. My father used to be called Meijin(Expert), but still he didn't teach me, not to me. Reason why he didn't teach me was because, he said other kids in service must support the parents they live with in a future, so I will teach, but you are not it because I can work. So if you learn from me, you will never go above me. He also said to me 'only look at my weak points, so you can go above me by overcoming my weaknesses'. He said like that, and never, ever taught me. It was 5 or 6years ago, my father's last pupil passed away. There are many things I wanted to ask him, so many things. He learned from my father, but I didn't. I had to think everything by myself. It's a huge difference. But I got better and quicker in my work 3 to 4times than others. (Do you teach your son?) No, I don't. I won't slap him either. (Yuji-san, do you sometimes get amazed of your father's printings?) (Father)I think he does. (Son)I do.

(Father)What the woodprints are, you'll never be able to make exact same one. You print 200 at once, you will end up having 200 different ones. So as a result, you will never feel this is alright. I'm on this business for 70 years, yet I never had a experience when I was satisfied with the printing. That's the way it is. Why 200? The printing board does not get crushed because you rub with Baren(tool to rub the paper on printing board) from the top. Brushing the board with a brush will make the board wet, and then softer. Then you rub the wet and soft board again and that makes it crushed. So what Oyakata(Master) has to do is to print 200 from morning when he woke up till sunset. Oyakata only does the black ink.

And then, all the other craftsman do the rest. 200prints at once is the most kind number for a board. The board that printed 1000 at once and the one that printed 200 for 5times, they are different in how bad the board is crushed. That's why we don't do more than 200once, we quit when the board is swollen. We wait until it dries. That's what the woodprint is. In Meiji-era when the western style brush was made(hair of the brush is coming out from the holes in handle), the board could last longer than before. In Edo-era when there was no brush, craftsman crushed all the boards because they painted with Japanese style small hand brush(bundling the hair and clipping it with boards as a handle). But the boards are much more expensive, you know? So they shave the board and just carved another one. That's why there is no woodprint board left from Edo-era. And that is the reason of high prices in woodprints.

(Who draws the picture at yours?) No pictures. We only take a photograph. The painters of today think that they must draw picture into the detail. But if they do, we the printers are in trouble. It is same, today or long ago. Picture could only be sold by 16mon even though it was printed by Oyakata(Master) or kids in service, or craftsman. No ranks. They call us intangible cultural assets or whatever, but price is the same, everything. It's kind of fun, you won't see business like this in any other place. So I think it is easy for painters, but they can't paint the rough sketch for woodprints. They don't understand what it is. All they need to do is only draw the Chinese black ink, or just tell us 'this right here is hair carving'. And then, person with skills can do it with there own. So there are carving of 16lines and 20lines and so on. It's kind of weird, but that's how it is from long time ago. Same in coloring. I don't really care. But still, I do care much more than before, because woodprints are expensive now.

Honestly, I think there are less people who can understand the woodprints now. That's why they are not sold well. Nowadays, people don't understand Edo. There is no longer Edo. You can't sell Edo to a place where there is no Edo. For example, an hairstyle. Some lady said to me 'What is Tabo(hair that hangs in front of ears in Japanese style)?'. She doesn't know what the Tabo is. She won't understand unless I explain everything to her. (Pointing at the woodprint) Tabo like this could not be seen in Utamaro's. (Pointing at another woodprint) This kind of hairstyle, what this means is this girl's parents are looking for her husband. (demanding shimada)Pictures are totally different depending on what era it was printed in. But people wouldn't understand that. (Pointing at another woodprint) By the reformation of Tenpo-era, order that prohibits luxury was established. It prohibited luxurious combs and ornamental hairpins, so people in Ukiyoe hid them woth hoods. If the red ink was used for more than 1/10 for painting on something, it will not be allowed to sell, so the brown ink was mixed. Townspeople could not wear Ashida(high clogs), so wooden clogs called Geta. People who can't read buy pictures, so picture letters were used. But the Shogunate prohibited it saying 'People of no education, no ability to read, there's no need to teach them such letters'. So the only way left, people understood the three most beautiful women of Edo by the patterns of their Kimono. When I explain these and I sell my woodprints, it is like I'm selling the end or the climax of Rakugo(comic story ending in a joke). (Does your son studies these?)(Son) No, not yet. Only the works. (Does your father tells you these things?) Yes he does.

(Looking at 'Stop the sewing' by Yumeji(artist, poet. His works are of lyricism. So the woodprint of his pictures also are of lyricism.)) This is good. If I was to buy one, I will buy this one. In a department store, this girl came up to me and you know what she told me? She said 'Read it mister'. So I said to her 'Why don't you read'em for me' , and she says I'm asking you to read because I can't read. If you could not read and want someone to read it, you don't say 'Read it', that's what the teachers say. You say 'can you read it for me?' or something like that. (Girl in about what age?) She was wearing mini-skirt. She doesn't just go away without purchasing. She purchase it because it is funny. And she goes 'Mister, why only these kind of miserable pictures?'. Well, Yumeji's pictures sure are miserable. (Is that because of loneliness of the faces?) Yes. So I thought 'well she got a point though'. I say 'it is not miserable. It's the description of feelings'.